X-Nico

unusual facts about diode


William Eccles

Eccles invented the term Diode to describe an evacuated glass tube containing two electrodes; an anode and a cathode.


Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis

2012: Osamu Kumagai, Sony Corp., “Multi-Wavelength Laser Diode for Backward Compatibility of Three Generations’ Optical Disc Systems

Chua's diode

The diode is not sold commercially, and is usually manufactured as needed from standard circuit components such as diodes, capacitors, resistors and op-amps.

Flyback

Flyback diode, also known as a “freewheel diode”, a used to protect against spikes from inductive loads

Herbert Mataré

Later Mataré taught physics and mathematics in Wabern near Kassel and gave lectures at the Aachen university, and he was invited to build a semiconductor diode plant for Compagnie des Freins & Signaux Westinghouse in Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris.

Highly accelerated life test

Individual components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, printed circuit boards and whole electronic products such as cell phones, PDAs and televisions, eventually fail.

Robbie Francevic

After a strong early showing in the race in which Francevic had held 2nd for some time behind early leader Tom Walkinshaw, a failed alternator diode put them many laps down.

Tube sound

In 1982, Tom Scholz, a graduate of MIT and a member of Boston, introduced the Rockman, which used JFET/BJT-based operational amplifiers and diode-based clipping circuits, but achieved a distorted sound adopted by many well known musicians.

Vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting-laser

However, electrically pumped VECSELs (another matter entirely), were the brainchild of Aram Mooradian, an engineer known for fundamental contributions to diode laser linewidth studies, who worked for many years at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Zetex

Zetex Semiconductors, a transistor and diode manufacturer, once part of Ferranti.


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